A Tragedy of the Commons in Coastal Fisheries: Contending Prescriptions for Conservation, and the Case of the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna

Abstract

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) has recommended, in light of severe stress on the Atlantic Ocean's population of bluefin tuna that, for the indefinite future, no commercial fishing for juvenile fish of this species be allowed. Concurrently, Congress has set out specific monitoring requirements for the catch Atlantic bluefin tuna in the Atlantic Tunas Convention Act in order to facilitate conservation of the species. This Comment examines the National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS) implementation of these requirements and concludes that the current management system is particularly ineffective with respect to the recreational Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery, and should be replaced with an overall system more similar to the one currently used in the commercial fishery.